Cars towed to clear the snow

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- If having their car being stuck in the snow wasn't bad enough, some New Haven residents may find their cars have been towed away so the city can clear the streets.

It was a rude awakening Wednesday morning for those who did not heed New Haven's warning. The city made good on its threat to remove obstacles to the plowing process.

And this job is just half done.

All night long, the heavy equipment scooped up those massive snow piles on New Haven's snow emergency routes.

"Major arterials were worked on overnight, we did some towing and got those open," said New Haven Mayor John DeStefano.

And to help the effort, the Mayor ordered all cars parked on those snow emergency routes towed away.

For a full list of the snow emergency route, click here.

Many of them ended up at Crown Towing. Angel Rivera says the owners who showed up were pretty understanding.

"They didn't know that the snow ban was still in effect, but I told them that the media was out there, they did announce it a few days before that the snow ban was in effect," said Rivera, "and they're okay with it."

And we're announcing it again. Tonight, Wednesday night, there are parking restrictions on all New Haven streets.

For tonight, the parking is only on one side of the street. You have to check out the numbers on the houses. You can't park on the odd side of the street from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

"You car is on the odd side of the street right now, what are you going to do," asked News 8's Kent Pierce.

"I do have to go out later in the day," said John Biatowas, of New Haven, "so maybe I'll come back and be lucky enough to catch a space on the even side."

Lots of cars on even sides will take some work to move.
  
One driver spinning his wheels on Gilbert Avenue told News 8 the parking ban is only going to make people more mad at the city for how it handled the snow. Angry or not, you've got to move your vehicle or risk it being gone in the morning.

"Tonight we're going to go back out again, probably between 6:30 and 7:30 and we're probably going to go all the way up to 11 or 12 o'clock at night," Rivera said.

So far the city has spent about a million dollars cleaning up from the storm, and the cost is climbing. By comparison, the Mayor said the city spent $1.2 million cleaning up from Irene.